Killing for Fun

I just read an article this morning online about a group teens in Oklahoma who randomly shot and killed an Australian collage student and claim they did it "for the fun of it". All I can think of is, what is wrong with these kids?

"...Charged with first-degree murder are Chancey Allen Luna, 16, and James Francis Edwards Jr., 15, according to the Stephens County District Attorney's office. Michael Dewayne Jones, 17, who allegedly drove the vehicle carrying the other suspects, was charged with use of a vehicle in the discharge of a weapon and accessory to murder after the fact, the office said..."

"...Lane was out jogging during a visit to his girlfriend and her family in Duncan on Friday, when he was shot in the back, police said. He attended East Central University in Ada, Oklahoma, where he was on a baseball scholarship.

…According to police, Jones said that the teens decided to kill someone "for the fun of it."..."

What drives a person (even the most immature teenager) to think that killing someone is funny? Or that its acceptable to kill for fun? From a psychological viewpoint, what causes a persons train of thought to resort to killing for fun?

It would appear the vast majority of the well publicized shootings over the last decade are done by the younger generation.

They are also done largely by young black and Hispanic men in their own neighborhoods. Short of lining up young black and Hispanic men in front of a large pit and shooting them (and no, I'm not proposing that), we need to bring them into the world the rest of us live in. We need to stop sending so many to prison on drug offenses. We need to reach them early and get them educated and help them find work once they graduate.

I'll be honest, I don't think it's that bizarre. It represents a dysfunctional extreme, but at the heart of it, I think many men and women experience from time to time a desire to physically dominate or show aggression toward other creatures. Movies, video games, sports and other activities are fairly tame outlets for that sort of urge, but I think at it's core it all comes from a similar place.

For most of us, however, I think the understanding of hurting an actual human being or creature would suffer from violence far outweighs the desire to actually commit harm. If not that, the fear of consequences may inhibit some. That said, the idea that there are outliers who feel restrained by neither and are excited by violence just isn't that surprising. Humans are capable of considerable and brutal violence. While I'm not up on the biology of it, doesn't it make sense evolutionarily that you'd get a neurotransmitter rush from it? Is fun really that exceptional for bad reasons to do awful things in human history?

Desensitisation, some deilberate, some not,, but together a toxic mix.

The plethora of murder related tv programmes, the wholesale slaughters conducted so graphically in so very many movies (even down to the zombie movies that equate being diferently human equals an imperitive to casually beat, hack, burn or blast to bits). The computer games that turn life and brutal death into cool points. The dehumanising prison systems that lower human life's value. A law enforcement bent on imposition of authority with a licence to use whatever violence it wishes. A gun culture that is inherently violent at its core. Then there is ten years of war, state sanction violence and destruction, state sponsored division of human life into good v bad, valued (american) not valued (anyone speaking anything not american, bearded, not christian). I know even before you finish reading this some will be reaching for their keyboard to argue about one or more of my points in isolation but my point is that all these things taken together, drip, drip, drip fed to some minds has a subtly corrosive effect.

@Nina - So, if you lived in America, exposed to your litany of societal flaws, it might conceivably have been you out there with those boys killing someone just for fun?

I'm always intrigued by critiques of the United States set forth by people whose knowledge of the United States comes from headlines. Headlines are typically of what we Americans call "man bites dog stories." In other words, it's the exceptional situation that makes the headline, not normal events.

BTW, google on "violence in the Netherlands" and I get a picture of your country of widespread violence against women and racial strife:

Each year in the Netherlands an estimated 1 million people are subjected to occasional domestic violence. A further 200,000 to 230,000 experience habitual domestic abuse. In more than two-thirds of all cases, the violence is committed by partners or ex-partners. Most victims are female. Women are also much more likely to experience sexual violence than men. (source)

The news coming out of Holland these days is distressing. The images are even worse: A filmmaker lying murdered on an Amsterdam street with a note stabbed into his chest. A Muslim school burning to the ground following a religiously motivated arson attack. A schoolroom in a Catholic school engulfed in flames, likewise the victim of a Molotov cocktail. A mosque smeared with swastikas. (source)

Women and minorities, DON'T go to The Netherlands, where there is a pervasive misogynistic culture!

Sit down one night, and turn the tv to a news channel. Doesn't really matter which one. Take a pen and paper, and make a note of every murder and/or violent crime story, and note the amount of time they spend on it. Now, picture if you can sitting there with your parents, every night, and imagine your parents as far right wing and very pro-gun. With this kind of perpetual attitude, what do you think your attitude towards human life would be, especially if the human life you were observing spoke and acted differently than you.

I'm not saying this is exactly what happened, I'm not even saying this is even remotely what happened, but this is Oklahoma we're talking about, just a short drive north of where I am. I see this kind of mentality all the time. We live in a culture that worships guns, and defines Human as American. Try not to act surprised when this mentality spikes and some kids decide to have a little fun within the grounds of this mentality.

Get mad, sure, That's an appropriate response. Just don't be surprised.

Emphasis on the "some minds." The majority of America's citizenry is fairly level-headed and has no lurking evil mindset. In a country of 300 million there are going to be acts by individuals who don't necessarily represent the majority, thankfully. Do we have some problems with our society? Oh hell yes.

@H3xx - "imagine your parents as far right wing and very pro-gun. With this kind of perpetual attitude, what do you think your attitude towards human life would be, especially if the human life you were observing spoke and acted differently than you."

If you're saying there is a direct correlation to being raised by a gun toting republican and, as a result, having a propensity for committing murder by firearm I would have to call that utter bullshit. I was raised conservatively and have had access to firearms my entire lifetime and never once had a real urge to "pop a cap" into a stranger's head. Registered gun owning tax paying citizens continue to statistically have a very respectable tract record when it comes to responsible gun ownership. These three perps should be tried as adults and sentenced accordingly. They'll make some homey on the inside a great bitch.

All western societies are still paternalistic and misogynistic, women are always going to be more the victims anywhere, so that point of yours is spurious.

I restate: "my point is that all these things taken together........."

Sociopathy is a mental disease, principally characterised by lack of empathy. It strikes me that our entire western society is suffering from it, yet this i not how we are born believe me, I hold newborns every day, none come out of vaginas like this.

It is because we been shown images of real violence on news and fake violence on tv and movies since infancy. For us to survive the mental trauma of this disturbing garbage, a lot of people just block the images out, like a rape-victim would block out the experience, they disassociate or become passive, in short we become complacent and consider it "normal". We reap what we sow, so when we sow violence by the means I talked about we will end up reaping murder, war, abuse and rape.

We all need to take this onboard, to challenge the assumed order because otherswise as Einstein said ;

"This world will not be destroyed by those that do evil but by those who watch them and do nothing"

Do I think all americans are sick in the head, no of course not that is patently absurd, and a petty thing for some to imply that is what I said, BUT - and its a BUT as big as my aunt arse - there is definitely something sicker at the heart of US society with the rest of the west in lock-step right behind it.